The American Way--By Alan McAlpine Douglas--United Kingdom

The American Way

What do I do when visiting Los Angeles

not add to traffic and pollution

or hire a car ? No contest -

the American way to get around

Choose my moment, 4 a.m. is pretty good,

by six freeway is misnamed, movement measured in yards.

But get anywhere, there’s some thing there -

created the American way in countless songs and flicks

L A’s positively a repository of the American way

a welcome of energy activity and glamour;

driving, lost, but vaguely in a right direction

I find that one essential more :

truly the American way to make my heart stop;

hidden by roadside greenery a faded sign

brings tears of joy, for abandoned in the American way

as no longer important, but forever so to me

A shield on a lopsided pole leaps out, then gone

and on that shield, my symbol of the American way

are those trusted, rusted, magic, nostalgia-kicking words

and yes, I got my kicks, on “Route 66” !

Alan McAlpine Douglas, father to 5 and grandfather to 3, has been writing poetry since 1993. His idiosyncratic voice has produced thousands of poems in this time, and he finds it quite hard to stay serious, even when he means to. He also enjoys writing spoofs, using well-known poems or songs like Clementine or In the Ghetto as his models.